The Departure from the Stable

In 1774 Prince William V opened a picture gallery on the Buitenhof in The Hague, beside his own residence. Besides the prince's guests it admitted the public, which makes it the first museum in the Netherlands that ordinary visitors could walk into. The Departure from the Stable, Wouwerman's panel of riders leaving a stable, is the partner of The Arrival at the Stable, and the two entered the prince's collection together in 1768. By 1816 the panel was hanging in that gallery again, which by then housed the new Royal Picture Gallery. In 1822 the whole collection moved a few hundred metres to the Mauritshuis. The pair has since returned to the prince's rooms on the Buitenhof. The Mauritshuis still owns this panel, and it hangs in the Gallery Prince Willem V.